Silent Night
by Happy Sartre
Summary: When Jade showed up at Beck's doorstep on Christmas Eve, she refused to tell him why her dad kicked her out of the house. But in the dark hours between night and morning, she finds the courage to tell him. For Ashyboo02's Winter Wonderland contest.


"I'm so excited for Christmas break," Robbie said cheerfully as he sat down next to Beck and Jade. "Starts tomorrow! What do you two plan to do this holiday season?"

"Eh, you know," Beck said. "Chillin' with the family, presents, big family dinner, some kind of fight between Uncle Barbara and my mother—the usual Oliver Christmas."

"Sounds fun! What about you, Jade?"

She shrugged. "My family exchanges gifts early in the morning, then we go to church for the Christmas service."

"Oh, you're Christian?" Robbie asked, a bit surprised.

"Yeah," Jade said, narrowing her eyes at Robbie. "What, just because I'm Goth means I can't go to church? I go every Sunday, just so you know."

"What, no, I didn't say that!" Robbie said. "Do your parents make you go or something?"

"No," Jade said, her aggravation growing. "Contrary to popular belief, I am _not_ a Satanist."

"I didn't say that, it's just…you just don't really seem like the church-going type is all."

"Yeah, and you don't really seem like the type to die a horrible and violent death, but that doesn't mean you won't."

"Look, Jade, I…" Robbie trailed off as the girl glared at him with her icy blue eyes. "I'm going to leave before you hurt me. Merry Christmas."

"And a Happy New Year," Jade sneered Robbie scurried away.

"Now was that necessary, Jade?" Beck asked, running his fingers through a lock of her black hair.

"It was entirely necessary. He was annoying me, so I made him leave." Jade took a sip of coffee.

Beck raised an eyebrow, a bit amused. "But Jesus wouldn't approve of your victimizing an innocent if untactful boy, would He?"

Jade looked at Beck. "Well, Jesus also doesn't approve of pre-marital sex, but that hasn't stopped us, now has it?"

Beck held up his hands. "Fine, fine. Just say a lot of Hail Marys later."

"That's what I always do."

Though Jade had a very tough, mean, and sardonic exterior, she was actually a lot more vulnerable inside. It was a classic example of a girl with low self-esteem who builds herself up to seem stronger than she really is.

On the inside, Jade really did love Jesus. When she was a kid, unlike everyone else she knew, she looked forward to Sunday School. Jesus had been her idol, and when she was little she always strove to be like Him. Kind, moralistic, and never going back on his beliefs. But it was very hard to be like that. Very, very hard, especially when teachers would get mad at her for drawing crosses in class and atheists would constantly argue with her and tell her that God didn't exist. And when she looked around and saw all the suffering in the world, she wondered, as all people do, how a God could exist when such awful things happened. But her mother would tell her that it was all part of God's plan, and that the faithful would be rewarded in the end.

That was a little harder to believe when her mother died, but Jade still held on. She had to.

Religion was one of the only things that kept her connected to her father, so even if she didn't believe in God, she still would have prayed and gone to church, if only for that one meager connection with the man who barely cared about her.

While she believed in the Big Bang Theory and evolution, she still would imagine God out there somewhere, pulling the strings to make them happen. And the one thing that she always believed, no matter what, was that Jesus Christ was her savior.

But above that even, Jade believed that she would be given mercy. She had been saved when she was younger, went to church each week, and prayed every night. Practicing forgiveness for others was very difficult and hurt her pride, and she could never do it to somebody's face. But each night, to Jesus, she would forgive them, and ask Him to forgive her.

Having sex with Beck didn't seem like a big deal, not in the greater scheme of things. Jade didn't even get why the church would preach that sex was evil and would lead to Hell. She and Beck loved each other, and, seriously, if they had sex after being together for over two years, who was it hurting? Jade could only see Jesus being angry with her if she got pregnant and aborted the baby, which she would never do.

However, it certainly crossed her mind when she saw the positive pregnancy test.

When Jade arrived at Beck's doorstep on the afternoon of Christmas Eve, she didn't look like herself. She wore absolutely no makeup, and without the eyeliner she actually looked vulnerable. But most of all, she looked scared, and Beck could tell that she had be recently crying.

Beck wrapped Jade in his arms. "Jade, what's wrong?"

"I don't want to talk about it," Jade said. "Basically, my dad threw me out, and I have nowhere else to go. Can I stay here for Christmas?"

"Of course." Beck hugged her tighter and tucked her head under his chin. "Are you sure you don't want to talk about it?"

"I will, just…not right now."

"Okay, that's totally fine." Beck gave her one last squeeze and let go. "Come inside. We're watching _It's a Wonderful Life_. Now, I know that you don't like it, but do you think you can tolerate it…?"

Jade nodded. "That movie sounds perfect right about now."

It was no secret that Beck's family didn't like Jade, but at least they were tolerating her at the moment. Jade, normally harsh and bitingly sarcastic, was quiet and polite. While at least some of the family was warming up to her, it put Beck himself on edge. Something was seriously, _seriously_ wrong. Every second that Jade didn't talk about what happened just made Beck even more stressed out. He concocted all sorts of bizarre stories for why she got kicked, ranging from basic abuse and alcoholism to the CIA stepping in, gunning down her father, and Jade having to fight them all of with only a rusty pair of scissors before escaping.

Naturally, that night Beck couldn't sleep. He was bunking with some of his younger cousins in his old room, while other family members occupied his RV. Jade had the couch in the living room. All Beck could do was watch the green florescent numbers of his alarm clock tick the minutes by. He listened to the parents as they put Santa's presents under the tree, chat in whispers as they ate the cookies, and go back to bed. That had been around ten o'clock. When the clock hit midnight, Beck whispered, "_Merry Christmas_," to himself. That had been an hour and a half ago.

Beck wanted desperately to go to Jade and just wrap his arms around her and tell that whatever was wrong, it would be all right in the end. But he knew that she was probably sleeping, and he didn't want to disturb her.

As Beck played through another ridiculous scenario for how Jade got kicked out (Peruvian bandits, smuggling designer drugs to celebrities, were hiding in Jade's bathroom from the cops, and though Jade was innocent, her father though she was in cahoots with them), he began to hear something faint and musical. It sounded like…piano…? And…and singing…?

"_Silent night, holy night  
>All is calm, all is bright"<em>

Beck propped himself up on his elbow, making sure that he wasn't imagining the singing. Sure enough, it was there.

"_Round yon virgin Mother and Child  
>Holy infant so tender and mild"<em>

Yup, that was definitely singing, and it was definitely Jade's voice. Beck quietly got out of bed, careful not to disturb his cousins, and headed down the hall to the living room, listening to Jade's rich and emotional voice down the short walk.

"_Sleep in heavenly peace  
>Sleep in heavenly peace"<em>

Beck stopped at the closed door, his hand on the knob. As Jade was about to start on the second verse, Beck opened the door and began singing.

"_Silent night, holy night  
>Son of God, love's pure light"<em>

Jade jumped a bit and stopped playing, but when she saw that it was Beck standing there she smiled and resumed playing the piano. Still singing, Beck closed the door behind him and walked over to Jade. He sat down at the bench and brushed his fingers against Jade's cheek.

"_Radiant beams from Thy holy face  
>With the dawn of redeeming grace"<em>

At that line, Jade flinched a little. She turned her head away from Beck, looking down as her fingers continued to dance across the keys, and Beck finished the verse.

"_Jesus, Lord at Thy birth  
><em>_Jesus, Lord at Thy birth"_

Jade stopped playing. She clasped her hands in her lap and stared straight ahead at the steady white lights of the Christmas tree.

"I'm pregnant," she whispered.

"You're…" Beck shook his head. "Oh my God." He began rubbing his eyes. "That's why your dad kicked you out."

"Yup," Jade said, pursing her lips. She still refused to look at Beck. "He said that I was a whore and that I was going to Hell."

Beck wrapped his arms comfortingly around Jade. "Well your dad's going to Hell for saying that."

"Don't say that!" Jade hissed, pushing Beck away. "Don't ever wish Hell on somebody else."

"Okay, Jade, okay," Beck said, tentatively taking her hand. "No one's going to Hell. Not you, and not your dad. Nobody."

Jade pursed her lips and nodded. "I feel so weird… Like, I don't feel like myself, and nothing makes sense anymore. We always used protection, and I don't know how this could have happened. I'm sorry, Beck."

"Don't be, Jade. If anything, I should be apologizing to you. Are you keeping the baby?"

"Of course I am," Jade said immediately, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"That's wonderful," he said, hugging Jade and kissing her temple.

Jade shook her head and her voice was thick with emotion. "No it's not, Beck. My dad kicked me out. I have nowhere to go."

Beck laughed. "Are you kidding me? Jade, you can stay here. There's plenty of room in my RV, and my own parents can _never_ kick you out, since you won't even be living with them."

Jade smiled and rested her head against Beck's shoulder. "You're taking this a lot better than I thought you would."

"Jade, you have no idea what kind of stories I was coming up with to explain how you got kicked out. One of them involved a singing zombie." Jade gave a small laugh, and Beck smiled. "I'm pretty glad that it's this, compared to what else I thought."

Jade smiled and remained silent for a while, tracing patterns on the back of Beck's hand.

"Will you take me to church tomorrow after your family opens presents?" she asked.

"Of course."

"And you'll stay for the service, right?"

"Yeah, definitely. I don't think I've ever even gone to church before, but, hey, if it makes you happy I'll…I'll even become a priest."

Jade smirked a little. Beck was trying way too hard to cheer her up, but she appreciated it.

"And after that…" she asked quietly, "do you think that…maybe we could go shopping for a…a ring?"

"A ring? Like an engagement ring?"

Jade nodded.

"Jade," Beck said, "you don't even have to ask." He kissed her and placed a hand over her stomach, the baby still too small to make even the slightest bulge.

Jade smiled a wide, genuine smile and placed her hands over Beck's. "This sounds really sappy, but it's kind of nice, you know, thinking about how this is the anniversary of Jesus' birth, and now our own family is about to start."

"Yeah, it is."

"But your parents are going to be so pissed when they find out," Jade said.

"I don't care. You, me, and this kid right here—" Beck rubbed Jade's stomach "—we're starting our own family right now, and it doesn't matter what they think."

Jade smiled again, looking adoring into Beck's chocolate brown eyes. "I love you, Beck. I really, really do."

"I love you too, Jade."

"Come on, let's finish this song and go to sleep. It's probably best if we're awake tomorrow morning."

Jade took her hand off of Beck's, and began to play the piano again. Both she and Beck started singing again, their voices harmonizing into a perfect, heavenly melody.

"_Silent Night, holy night  
><em>_Shepards quake at the sight  
><em>_Glories stream from heaven afar  
><em>_Heavenly hosts sing Halleluiah  
><em>_Christ the savior is born  
><em>_Christ the savior is born."_

~o~

And that's why I shouldn't write things about religion. This could probably stand to go through a few more edits, but considering this fic is for a contest that ends today, there just simply isn't any time. I hope you like it, Ashyboo, and I hope all of you readers review this!

Have a Merry Christmas. :)


End file.
